Founding MENA #23
Welcome to the Founding MENA newsletter, bringing you the top stories from across the region every week.
I hope you find the newsletter insightful, but I’m always open to feedback and suggestions. Let’s get into it!
💰 Investment Rounds
- 🇦🇪 CNTXT AI raised $60M in Series A co-led by AI71 and BlueFive Capital. See more here.
- 🇦🇪 Sovra raised $2M+ in pre-seed led by Pharsalus Capital. See more here.
- 🇸🇦 Pickappo raised $530K in pre-seed from angel and investment fund backing. See more here.
- 🇦🇪 Tern received undisclosed investment from Dubizzle Group Ventures. See more here.
- 🇸🇾 Moadna raised $50K in early-stage funding from angel investors. See more here.
📰 Startup News
Al Khayyat Investments has committed $100 million to launch VetHealth
AKI is a six-decade-old Emirati family conglomerate. They operate across pharmaceuticals, healthcare, retail, food, logistics, and more. Animal health is a new frontier for them.
VetHealth launches with five core divisions: Pharmaceuticals, Biologicals, Biosecurity, Nutrition, and Diagnostics.
It will serve commercial animal production operations, veterinary clinics, government entities, feed mills, and pharmacies across the region; anything that sits at the intersection of animal care and food-producing animal biosecurity.
The strategic rationale is straightforward. The MEA veterinary healthcare market is projected to reach $6.91 billion by 2033.
That growth is being driven by two parallel forces: demand for livestock productivity as food security becomes a national policy priority, and a significant surge in pet ownership across the GCC.
What gives VetHealth a structural advantage from day one is AKI’s existing regional distribution network. They’re not starting from scratch, they’re plugging a new category into infrastructure that took decades to build.
For anyone tracking MENA’s food security agenda, this is the kind of quiet, unsexy, but strategically critical investment that doesn’t get enough attention.
Read more here.
📰 Other News
Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund has joined NVIDIA, KKR, and Vistra Corp. to launch a $10 billion AI infrastructure company.
Helix Digital Infrastructure will be led by Adam Selipsky, the former CEO of Amazon Web Services.
The company’s mandate is to build the next generation of large-scale infrastructure needed to support surging global demand for AI.
Kuwait Investment Authority brings long-term patient capital and global investment reach.
NVIDIA is the strategic technology partner, which in practice means access to the most critical hardware in the AI stack.
Vistra, one of the largest integrated power companies in the United States, will serve as preferred power provider.
KKR provides the private equity structuring and institutional credibility.
Four completely different types of capital and capability, aligned around a single constraint: AI needs infrastructure at a scale the world hasn’t built before.
Kuwait has been moving in this direction for some time. KIA has invested approximately $9 billion in AI and digital sectors over the past five years.
This is the largest single expression of that strategy yet, and it comes alongside KIA’s existing participation in Brookfield’s $100 billion global AI infrastructure programme.
Gulf sovereign wealth is no longer just a passive investor in global technology. It is increasingly a co-architect of the infrastructure that technology runs on.
That shift has been happening quietly. Helix is the loudest statement of it so far.That's the long game.
Read more here.
IHC is leading the charge with share buybacks
IHC has launched the first tranche of its share buyback programme ($49 million), beginning purchases on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
The full programme, authorised by shareholders, extends to AED 5 billion.
Today’s tranche represents 36% of that total. IHC is Abu Dhabi’s largest listed company, with a diversified portfolio spanning energy, healthcare, food, real estate, and technology.
A share buyback at this scale from a company of IHC’s size is a clear signal: management believes the stock is undervalued relative to its intrinsic worth, and is prepared to put serious capital behind that conviction.
It also returns value to existing shareholders and demonstrates confidence in the company’s financial position at a time when regional markets are navigating a more complex macro environment.
Worth watching how the market responds to the programme’s execution over the coming weeks.
Read more here.
🤝🏼 Tools for Founders
Founding MENA has partnered with CapQuest, MENA’s leading equity management platform.
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All of our readers can get 20% off their first year with CapQuest using the code: scalingmena20.
That’s all for this week, thanks! All of our MENA based readers: please stay safe. Sam
First published 22 Jun 2026 on Substack
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